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He then spent a further hour positioning her on a tree trump, before taking a series of photographs.

The finished creation sees the model's outstretched left leg become the parrot's tail feathers, while her right leg and arm become its wings

Amazing: The spectacular work of art was created by 35-year-old Johannes Stoetter, a former world champion body painter. He spent weeks painstakingly planning how he could transform the female model into a parrot

Concentration: He painted the woman's body using special breathable paint - adding intricate detail and colours

And her left arm - wrapped around her head - forms the tropical bird's head.

Mr Stoetter, who was crowned World Body Painting Champion in 2012, said he had chosen to position the model on a tree stump to enhance the 'parrot's' life-like appearance.

'Getting
the scene set up took about five hours, then it took about another four
hours to paint the model and an hour to get her position right,' he said.

Incredible: The finished creation sees the model's outstretched left leg become the parrot's tail feathers, while her right leg and arm become its wings. Her left arm - wrapped around her head - forms the tropical bird's head

'It
was quite hard to take the photo, to tell the model how to pose to make
the parrot seem as real as possible and also to find the right point of
view for me to take the photo.

'It was not easy for the model to hold the position either. The whole process took about four weeks from start to finish.'

He added: 'I feel very happy with the final work. Most people’s reaction are “nice photo of a parrot, where did you photograph it?”

Makeover: Mr Stoetter said even his closest friends often mistake his creation for a photo of a real-life parrot

'Even some of my closest friends who know me and my art didn’t notice that it is not a real parrot.

'When they found out, they were really amazed, stunned and surprised.'

It is not the first time the artist has created a stunning piece of artwork using a person's body.

Last year, he used five people to produce a life-like tree frog - painting their bodies and limbs to resemble the animal's body, legs, arms and head.